Times Explores Churches' New Role In Economic Development

Friday's New York Times ran a long piece in its Business Section titled Megachurches Add Local Economy to Their Mission. Here is an excerpt:

[S]ome huge churches ... are becoming catalysts for local economic development, challenging a conventional view that churches drain a town financially.... But the entrepreneurial activities of churches pose questions for their communities that do not arise with secular development.

These enterprises, whose sponsoring churches benefit from a variety of tax breaks and regulatory exemptions given to religious organizations in this country, sometimes provoke complaints from for-profit businesses with which they compete.... Mixed-use projects, like shopping centers that also include church buildings, can make it difficult to determine what constitutes tax-exempt ministry work, which is granted exemptions from property and unemployment taxes, and what is taxable commerce.

And when these ventures succeed — when local amenities like shops, sports centers, theaters and clinics are all provided in church-run settings and employ mostly church members — people of other faiths may feel shut out of a significant part of a town’s life, some religion scholars said.

[Thanks to Melissa Rogers for the lead.]